DEFEND THE RIGHT TO INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY, RESCIND THE PH IMMIGRATION BLACKLIST

August 24, 2018

ILPS Philippines Statement / 10 August 2018

The International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS) – Philippines chapter vehemently condemns the Philippine Bureau of Immigration’s (BOI) blacklist order preventing 28 people from entering the country for being members of the ILPS and supposedly participating in protest actions against the APEC in 2015.

The ILPS is a broad alliance of organizations and movements which aims to foster the unity, cooperation and coordination of anti-imperialist and democratic struggles of peoples around the world. Through fostering international solidarity, the ILPS has consistently exposed and opposed the exploitative and oppressive policies of imperialist and puppet states.

The release of this blacklist on ILPS members and allies is an outright violation of internationally recognized rights which allows individuals and peoples to participate in actions for the realization of basic human rights and fundamental freedoms. Even more absurd is the inclusion of Filipino nationals in this blacklist. This move is clearly meant to prevent the exposition of the worsening situation in the Philippines to the world at large and suppress the support between Filipinos and foreign nationals. It is also indicative of the Duterte administration’s subservience to imperialist powers.

We denounce this blacklist together with the series of attacks that the Philippine government has launched on progressive individuals this year alone; such as the deportation of Sister Patricia Fox, the terror-tagging on more than 600 individuals, the revival of trumped up charges and issuing arrest warrants against former legislators Satur Ocampo, Rafael Mariano, Teddy Casino, and Liza Maza (Makabayan 4), and barring lawyer and human rights advocate Prof. Gill Boehringer from entering the Philippines. These draconian actions of the Duterte regime are clearly meant to suppress the growing resistance in light of the worsening human rights situation and socio-economic burdens in the Philippines.

We demand that the Philippine government immediately rescind its blacklist order. We call on the Filipino people and the rest of the world to stand up against this brazen act of criminalizing international solidarity between peoples. Furthermore, we demand that Prof. Boehringer be allowed into the Philippines. We call on the Duterte administration to immediately stop the attacks on advocates of people’s rights, whether Filipinos or foreign nationals. ###